Slip-affected Kingston home demolished

Digging in Kingston

WRECKED: A house on Priscilla Crescent is demolished by a digger this morning.

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A home that teetered above a landslide for more than a year was reduced to rubble in an hour this morning.

A large digger was at Priscilla Cres in the Wellington suburb of Kingston soon after first light to complete an operation that began last week to destroy two neighbouring houses.

One was demolished last week with the second - partly overhanging the slip site - demolished today. The bulk of the work was done in less than an hour.

The houses in Priscilla Cres were among a cluster abandoned after the slip in June last year.

Emergency services were called to Kingston early on the morning of June 1 last year after a resident found a substantial chunk of the cliff had fallen away. The slip was about 150 metres high and 40m wide.

Dozens of residents had to flee their homes, and the worst- affected properties have remained cordoned off since.

There have been differences of opinion over whether homeowners are responsible for the remediation for their properties, or whether the council should buy the land from them.